Out of the Box - Unleash your Creativity through Quilts

This is a lovely quirky quilt book, not so much a pattern book, but a very interesting guide to making “Short Story Quilts”, and learning to quilt with a little humour and fun. Mary Lou Weidman makes bright, whimsical and colourful appliqué quilts, often accompanied by text and lots of embellishment. Her “Short Stories” are based on an action, emotion, blessing, event, place or observation, or anything else you can think of which can be depicted by a picture and a few appropriate words. This is primarily a book about creativity, and as such has lots of good advice about colour, tone, and design principles. On the practical side, there is a great section on the importance of borders, and some lovely “wonky” blocks to try. The book is packed with many full colour examples of Mary Lou’s own work and that of her many students, and there is real value for money in the text! Mary Lou’s quilting style is reminiscent of Dorothy Stapleton, and her writing reflects the same positive, energetic warmth, the book is very friendly in tone, and there are many words of encouragement for those of us who would like to think “out of the box” more often. If the quilts themselves are not your cup of tea, this is still a very interesting read, and there is a wealth of good tips and hints for any quilter. If you are a fan, Mary Lou recommends that “Short Story” quilts are made fairly small; she suggests that we should change our wall hangings around the house as the mood takes us, so you might want to make more than one!